


Paternity

by Mithen



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-01
Updated: 2010-04-01
Packaged: 2017-10-08 14:14:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/76461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mithen/pseuds/Mithen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Superman asks Batman for some help determining Superboy's other parent--and finds out more than he bargained for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Paternity

  
Batman's arms were crossed, the cowl hiding his eyes, his mouth neither smiling nor frowning. Superman cleared his throat nervously. "I need to ask you for a favor. About Superboy."

It wasn't the only reason, but Superman didn't feel like mentioning that he had simply wanted to see Bruce for a bit. They hadn't talked since Clark's...fight with Doomsday and his...return (he simply couldn't call them "death" and "resurrection," somehow). They hadn't talked for a while before that, either, but ever since his...experience Clark had found his thoughts turning to Batman often, to thoughts of friendship and mortality and the shortness of life.

"He told me that the scientists at Cadmus originally claimed he was a clone of me, but after I came back they confessed that he was human, merely genetically engineered to appear Kryptonian. However, I don't really trust Cadmus to be telling the truth now, either."

Batman shrugged one shoulder. "You can read DNA. Check him."

"I did," Clark said, "but the results...he's at least part-Kryptonian, I can tell that. But the DNA are not purely mine, and I don't have the skill to analyze combined DNA." He held up a small disc. "I was hoping your computers could trace the likely source of the human DNA they used to create the boy."

Batman snorted slightly. "You'd like to know who the lucky lady is?"

Clark felt his face heating slightly. "Look, I haven't told him it's my DNA yet. He's anxious to strike off on his own and I don't want to be...hovering, you know? But I do want to know who the mother of my child is."

Batman took the disc from his fingers. "Doesn't have to be a woman, you know. In fact, it's probably easier to combine two men's DNA. Who knows, Booster Gold could be the boy's mommy."

Clark rolled his eyes slightly, remembering the kid's showboating style. "That would explain a lot, actually."

Batman slipped the disc into the computer which whirred into life, tossing helices and amino acid sequences across the screen in a dizzying cascade. "This could take a moment," Bruce said.

"Oh. Well." Clark looked around the cave. It had been so very long since he'd been here... "I guess give me a call when it's done and I'll come back."

"No time for coffee, huh?" Batman's voice was neutral, but Clark paused.

"Actually...I wouldn't mind a cup. With--"

"--Cream and sugar, I know," Batman said.

An hour later, they were sitting and drinking coffee, and it was...less awkward. Not comfortable, but Clark had gotten Bruce to tell him a little more about the new Robin. They didn't talk about Clark's death or Bruce's injury. But it felt good to just be sitting together and talking.

The computer made a garbled run of beeps and Batman glanced over at it.

Seconds later, Clark was still so taken aback at the sight of Batman _spitting out a mouthful of coffee_ that he hadn't even glanced at the computer. When he looked--and saw the photograph of the human DNA source for his son glaring haughtily from the screen--it was all he could do not to start laughing from the sheer, horrible _impossibility_ of it all.

**: : :**

"You should be thanking me." Amanda Waller seemed entirely unconcerned that she was currently being lifted off the floor by one of the mightiest beings on the planet, and being glared at by another.

"_Thank_ you? For using our DNA to create life without telling us?"

Waller looked slightly bored. "It was Luthor who was pulling the strings at Cadmus to do _that_. We merely stepped in to make sure it wasn't _his_ DNA combined with yours. I just so happened to have some of Batman's DNA handy--" You wouldn't think someone could shrug carelessly while being dangled by Superman, but Waller managed it, "--and our little super-bat was born."

"Luthor's--" Clark was so appalled at the thought that he loosened his grasp on Waller's lapels; Waller twisted free and landed neatly, then straightened to dust off her suit.

"Yes. So it could be worse," she said, her voice dry. "You could have had an crazy, egotistical billionaire who thinks he's above the law for the other parent of your child." She shot a glance at Batman, her face entirely deadpan. "A tragedy narrowly averted."

"Sure," gritted Superman. "Great. Now what do we do?"

"You can do whatever you want," Batman said, the first words he had spoken since entering Waller's office. "It has nothing to do with me." He swiveled and headed for the window.

"You'd walk away from your own son?" Waller said.

"He's a created being," Batman said without looking back, his voice ice-cold. "A construct. If you stole my cape and made a doll from it, would I be required to take it home and love it?" He readied a grapple. "Just how gullible do you think I am?" Crouched on the window sill, he looked back at Waller. "By the way, if you have any of my genetic material still 'handy,' I would suggest you dispose of it. It would be a shame if all of your genetic banks were to be destroyed by a vandal some night."

Superman caught up with Batman as he swooped across the skyline. "Did you really mean that? I mean, the kid's still a person."

Batman landed on a ledge and crossed his arms, looking at Superman. "You said yourself you weren't going to get involved in his life."

"Well, yes, but--"

"I won't let Waller or the government start setting hooks in me, trying to get at me, have something they can dangle over my head. As far as I'm concerned, this situation has nothing to do with me at all. End of story."

Superman watched as Batman leapt from the rooftop, cape swirling. He was surprised at the ache of disappointment in his gut. He hadn't expected the two of them would be going to PTA meetings together anytime soon, but still.

**: : :**

_Two months later_

The crash of surf and the laughter of swimmers and surfers sparkled under the tropical sun. Clad in navy swim trunks and a plain white shirt, Clark Kent watched the young man showing off for a few appreciative girls. He had a mischievous look in his eye as he ran his hands through his curling dark hair, clowning and flirting.

Clark couldn't help but smile as he watched Superboy trying to impress his admirers. Then his smile turned lopsided as he happened to scan down the beach.

Moments later he was standing in front of a man wearing a stunningly bright Hawaiian shirt and sitting on a beach towel. The man's nose was liberally smeared with zinc oxide, his dark eyes obscured by sunglasses. He was holding binoculars and would have appeared to be bird-watching if Clark hadn't known perfectly well where those binoculars were actually pointing.

Bruce looked up as Clark's shadow fell across him. Clark crossed his arms and glared down at him, trying to keep his mouth from twitching into a smile. "Oh," Bruce said, slightly uncomfortably. "Well. I figured it wouldn't hurt to keep an eye on him, as long as Waller didn't find out." He glanced through the binoculars. "He seems a hit with the ladies."

"He takes after his father."

"Hrm. I hope he actually is _attracted_ to them, not just using them as a screen." Bruce flicked a quick, opaque glance toward Clark, then went back to watching Superboy. "He's certainly charming. Good-looking kid."

_"Takes after his father,"_ they both said in unison.

Bruce put down the binoculars and looked at Clark. "He's the only half-human, half-Kryptonian in the world. That might be tough on him."

"I know," Clark said.

"Robin's thinking of starting up a team. Like the Titans, for his generation." Bruce smirked slightly. "I figure if I discourage him from having 'that clone' on the team, he'll be sure to invite him."

Clark shook his head, smiling. "You've got a devious mind, you know that?"

The smirk slipped away. Bruce put down the binoculars and combed his fingers through the blindingly white sand, looking down.

"Hey," said Clark, surprised. "I meant that as a compliment, you know."

Bruce shrugged. "It's easier to be devious," he said. "To cover up the truth with a dozen different layers, to keep things safe and distant. Now and then, though, one does wish something in one's life could be--" A quick glance up, then away again, "--straightforward."

"Well." Clark stretched, feeling the sun on his limbs. "You might be here on recon, but I intend to get a little vacation out of this as well. I'm going for a swim. Care to join me?"

Bruce eyed the surf-churned water with narrow-eyed distrust. Then he looked back at Clark. "Aren't you going to take your shirt off?"

Clark felt his cheeks heating. "I prefer to keep covered as much as possible. For the secret identity."

Bruce snorted. For a man who wears skin-tight spandex, you're charmingly modest." He slipped his sunglasses down his nose a bit and eyed Clark over the top, his gaze traveling down Clark's body. "I have no doubt a wet shirt and a bathing suit will certainly keep you from being noticed. Excellent camouflage." He met Clark's eyes again. "So. Go on then, be sportive." He made a shooing motion toward the ocean with a hand. "Frolic in the surf. Live a little."

His voice was neutral, almost dismissive, but there was a question in his eyes, and a doubt, and a hope.

Clark held out a hand. "Come on in," he said. "The water's fine."

Bruce reached up and took it.

Then with a twist and a grin more blinding than the sun and sand, he was beyond Clark, kicking up a spray of sand that left Clark sputtering. The ridiculous Hawaiian shirt fluttered to the ground in his wake, and Bruce was running toward the sea, looking for just a moment like any man showing off and enjoying the sun.

Clark cast a last glance at their son--flexing his muscles and grinning--and took off after Bruce to tumble with him into the water, feel the waves crashing over them, the vast wild surge throwing them together once more.


End file.
